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Topic: What good book have you read lately? (New or old) (Read 534826 times)

How about Jodi Picoult? She is great and tackles some controversial topics. My favorite is My Sister's Keeper---made me cry---and I am one of the ones that didn't cry during BBM (I did cry everytime I thought about it--just not during the movie!:) ) Here is a review of My Sister's KeeperThirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald walks into the office of lawyer Campbell Alexander and announces she wants to sue her parents for the rights to her own body. Anna was conceived after her older sister, Kate, developed a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, and has donated bone marrow and blood to her sister. Now she has been asked to donate a kidney, and she intends to refuse. Campbell is a jaded young man who nevertheless decides to take her case pro bono. Anna's parents are shocked when they learn of her lawsuit, and her mother, a former civil defense attorney, decides to represent them. Anna refuses to budge on her position despite the fact that she clearly loves her sister and longs for her family's happiness. As the gripping court case builds, the story takes a shocking turn. Told in alternating perspectives by the engaging, fascinating cast of characters, Picoult's novel grabs the reader from the first page and never lets go. This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, controversial, and honest book. Kristine Huntley

Also, for the mystery lovers---her book Plain Truth is about a murder of an infant on an Amish farm---she does a great job explaining their culture.

Mary---I will have to check out Minette Walters--love the idea "what is the mystery" interesting...

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Has anybody read Norah Vincent's book about posing as a male? I just saw her being interviewed on the Colbert Report, and she was fabulous. What a cute dyke! The NYT Book Review was pretty glowing, too. I want to read this book, but I tend to wait until things get to paperback.

Has anybody read Norah Vincent's book about posing as a male? I just saw her being interviewed on the Colbert Report, and she was fabulous. What a cute dyke! The NYT Book Review was pretty glowing, too. I want to read this book, but I tend to wait until things get to paperback.

Haven't read it yet, though I'm looking forward to it! We've ordered it for the library (keep your libraries in mind for recently released books - you don't have to wait for paperback). And yes, a cute dyke (and if I may say, a rather handsome man too!)

Glad to have seen this thread take off in the last day or so - I _knew_ there were readers out there!

Has anyone here read the Michael Nava mysteries with the Henry Rios character? I haven't yet and was wondering if anyone here liked, for example 'Rag and Bone'?

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I do my thing, & you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other - it is beautiful. If not it can't be helped.

Has anybody read Norah Vincent's book about posing as a male? I just saw her being interviewed on the Colbert Report, and she was fabulous. What a cute dyke! The NYT Book Review was pretty glowing, too. I want to read this book, but I tend to wait until things get to paperback.

Haven't read it yet, though I'm looking forward to it! We've ordered it for the library (keep your libraries in mind for recently released books - you don't have to wait for paperback). And yes, a cute dyke (and if I may say, a rather handsome man too!)

Library? What's that

I'm a hoarder--I want to buy the book and dog-ear it to death! But, I do love to *browse* in libraries...peace and quiet...

The last great book I read was "Marabou Stork" by Irving Welsh. First book besides BBM novella that brought me to tears in a long time--and even a few laugh-out-louds. It is painfully visceral and very dark, but with a weird humanity amidst all the amoralism.

I can't help but mention a gothic-horror genre novel, Poppy Brite's "Drawing Blood." I certainly wouldn't call it great art, but it's alot of fun. It's got two cute boys as the protagonist love pair, one reforming from his bisexual slut ways into true love with the other, previously an asexual virgin. Lots of subculture descriptions of sex, drugs and rock and roll with a gothic twist. Lots of descriptions of hot sex between two boys in love.

I just saw Norah Vincent--on one of the news magazine shows. She is cute as both! I can't believe she pulled it off!

Has anyone read Middlesex: A Novel. It is my book clubs next selection Here is a review at Amazon.com"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides This should make for some interesting conversations about Nature vs. Nurture, I would think!

Another book that had my book club talking was The Bride Stripped Bare----about a women who is discovering her sexuality. I liked this readers comments about it--on Amazon.com :-Reviewer: Taffy Waffy "Kath" (Melb, AUST) - I was expecting a titillating, naughty read but got so much more. Most immediately brings to mind 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar' in its devastating depiction of a woman seeking fulfillment through sexual exploration. By the end I was sad, angry and totally enraptured by this haunting story. Look beyond the surface of the 'smut' and you will find so much more.

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Read Middlesex - enjoyed it a lot. Then went on the read Virgin suicides - liked it but enjoyed it less than Middlesex.

Thanks Mary! My bookclub is putting it out to vote on so I will vote Yes---because my BBM friend said it was good! My friends recently tried to have an intervention to get me away from this board but as you can see it hasn't worked!

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Thanks Mary! My bookclub is putting it out to vote on so I will vote Yes---because my BBM friend said it was good! My friends recently tried to have an intervention to get me away from this board but as you can see it hasn't worked!

Yes my husband tried an interventin back in December ( ) As you can see it has not worked either

So, I was just watching CSI Miami (Medium was a re-run) and I realized I hadn't mentioned Carl Hiaasen here - any other fans? Loved 'Tourist Season', 'Stormy Weather' and 'Lucky You' - was not as wild about 'Basket Case' and 'Sick Puppy'.

As an aside, I saw him speak at a local bookstore and he is very funny live! If he comes around to a local bookstore go see him!

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I do my thing, & you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other - it is beautiful. If not it can't be helped.

So, I was just watching CSI Miami (Medium was a re-run) and I realized I hadn't mentioned Carl Hiaasen here - any other fans? Loved 'Tourist Season', 'Stormy Weather' and 'Lucky You' - was not as wild about 'Basket Case' and 'Sick Puppy'.

As an aside, I saw him speak at a local bookstore and he is very funny live! If he comes around to a local bookstore go see him!

Yep! I read Skinny Dip! The lines from that book and the mix of characters.....made me an immediate fan but haven't read anything else by him. I have seen some interviews and I really like him.

On my side note--I worked at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver and met some really great authors. That is when I became a fan of Patricia Cornwell--very intelligent and articulate woman. That was the best job I ever had---well besides being a mom now!

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

I haven't read Hiaasen's 'Skinny Dip' yet, but will put it on the list. Actually, I really like to listen to both his books and Sue Grafton's as books on tape/cd when I do road trips.

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On my side note--I worked at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver and met some really great authors. That is when I became a fan of Patricia Cornwell--very intelligent and articulate woman. That was the best job I ever had---well besides being a mom now!

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I worked at bookstores for about 10 years - both independent and chain, and one of my all time favorite chance meetings of an author who was stopping by to see if her book was in was: LAUREN BACALL!!! And she was as charming as you might imagine. Among the most interesting author signings was Ann Rule - she was signing right around the time of 'The Stranger Beside Me' (about Ted Bundy - she worked next to him at a crisis hotline [!]).

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I do my thing, & you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other - it is beautiful. If not it can't be helped.

These aren't books I've read lately, but ones I read and enjoyed and feel may have flown under peoples' radar

They are by Joe R Lansdale, an author from Texas. My faves involve Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, two friends who live in Texas and find themselves investigating crimes, some unpleasant.

To quote Wikpedia

'Hap is a white working class laborer in his mid forties, and Leonard is a gay black man. Both of them are accomplished fighters, and the stories (told from Hap's narrative point of view) feature a great deal of violence, profanity and sex. Lansdale paints a picture of East Texas which is essentially "good" but blighted by racism, ignorance, urban and rural deprivation and corruption in public officials. Some of the subject matter is extremely dark, and has included paedophilia and anti gay violence. However, the novels are also characterised by sharp humour and "wisecracking" dialogue.'

What is refreshing is that Leonard totally goes against any gay stereotype. He votes Republican, he is an ex-vet and handy with his fists. He also actually has sexual relationships with other men!!!

peteinportland inspired me to start reading All The Pretty Horse by Cormac McCarthy I am loving it - I'm not sure I would have appreciated it before I saw BBM, but now reading it is an amazing pleasure. Some of the dialog seems like it came from or inspired BBM

Okay, this one's a bit odd (so no surprise, eh?) but has anyone else here read 'The Master and Margarita' by Bulgakov? Fascinating book - the devil comes to Moscow in the early part of the 20th century and (ahem) all hell breaks loose. Alternate with a plot concerning a certain pontius pilate and add a liberal dose of magical realism. Add a witches sabbat and a dab of Milton and you're good to go.

I'd heard about it for years and finally read it last year. A wonderful, wonderful book - challenging, yes - but amazing as well!

Fascinating story as to the way it was written as well - it took the author 20 years of rewrites and he finally dictated it to his wife as he was dying and blind. She hid the manuscript till Stalin died and it was published in the 60s in the Soviet Union. A new translation was published in the mid 90s that is great.

As much fun as re-reading Candide was years after I had to.

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I do my thing, & you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other - it is beautiful. If not it can't be helped.